Church urged to step in as report finds millions of Brits at risk of poor-quality later life

Sun 17 Mar 2019

By Eno Adeogun

A Christian charity has highlighted the importance of the Church's role in caring for the elderly, as a new report has found a significant proportion of people are at risk of spending later life in poverty, ill-health and hardship.

The Centre for Ageing Better is concerned that an ageing population is leading to pressure on healthcare, local authorities and the voluntary sector.

The report found the number of households where the oldest person is 85 or over, is increasing faster than any other age group and the number of people aged 65 and over is set to grow by more than 40 per cent in two decades.

Carl Knightly, director of Faith in Later Life - a Christian charity that works with older people, told Premier there needs to be a collective effort to care for older people.

"We very much want to encourage churches and people in churches to really think about how they reach out to not just their own older family members, but those around them in their church and in their neighbourhood.

"We can't deliver social care ourselves. But there are many ways that we can engage with people who are older around us, whether it's just checking in on them, providing friendship and support, asking them if they need any help with their shopping.

"There are many ways we can try to think about intentionally about how we serve the older people around us."

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